Case Studies

Industrial wastewater often contains large concentrations of nutrients and chemicals so an effective dispersal system is a crucial piece of infrastructure that every factory must have.

Oceania Dairy’s new processing factory in Glenavy, South Canterbury, is a great example of what can be achieved through smart wastewater design, expert installation and quality products.

WaterForce installed a state-of-the-art wastewater system for Oceania in 2014 to handle approximately 1500m3/day of high strength wastewater generated in the production of milk powder destined for the Chinese infant formula market.

Standard galvanized pivot span pipes weren’t suitable for the high concentrations of nitrogen, nitrates, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium present in the wastewater. So with Valley’s support and analysis, WaterForce recommended and supplied Valley Polyspan® pivots to complete the project and a total of 49 spans of Polyspan® were installed.

“It was definitely a good solution,” says Logan Hanifin, Oceania Dairy’s Maintenance and Services Manager. “We needed something that was going to last the distance and standard galvanized pipes weren’t going to cut it, so it was good to have another option available

”The factory’s wastewater is now dispersed via six Valley® pivots over 287ha of neighbouring farmland. Various pasture and cut and carry crops are grown and as the soil type varies, WaterForce has installed Valley Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) technology on each individual pivot suitable for wastewater distribution.
 

This allows Oceania to control and adjust each set of sprinklers to achieve varying application depths to suit different crop types, seasonal weather, soil requirements and resource consent conditions.

“It’s great to have that level of control for consent requirements. If the council has any questions it’s all traceable. And we can adjust our irrigation rates in wet winter months too which is helpful.”

WaterForce also installed SCADAfarm technology on each individual pivot which links with Oceania’s own factory SCADA system to control, monitor and measure the dispersal of wastewater depending on the volume being produced. The factory has full SCADA control via fibre optic, whilst also having the benefit of SCADAfarm’s app-based field control.

Using this SCADA technology, Oceania can pre-load and change a number of VRI prescriptions for each pivot depending on the weather, time of year, and wastewater requirements.

Overall, Oceania’s new high-spec wastewater system ensures the company can adhere to all consent conditions and dispose of their waste in an environmentally-friendly and efficient manner.

The total system capacity is approximately 12,737m3/day which includes room for irrigation water supplied by the Morven Glenavy Irrigation (MGI) company.

“WaterForce came in and got the job done. The whole project went really well,” Logan says.

WaterForce has the capacity, knowledge and expertise to design, supply, install, service and support large scale wastewater systems suitable for a variety of New Zealand industries. If you need help with upgrading or designing your new industrial wastewater system, get in touch with us today.